Anti-war protesters start 3-day march to Okinawa military bases

Japanese anti-war protestors complete a march around Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, ending at a park outside the base's main gate, May 18, 2014. The march, part of Peace Action 2014, began on Friday and hit bases across Okinawa, including Torii Station, Kadena Air Base, and Camps Schwab, Hansen and Courtney.

Japanese anti-war protesters complete a march around Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, ending at a park outside the base's main gate, May 18, 2014. The march, part of Peace Action 2014, hit bases across Okinawa, including Torii Station, Kadena Air Base, and Camps Schwab, Hansen and Courtney.

Lisa Tourtelot/Stars and Stripes

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With a flotilla of boats and kayaks, complete with chants and anti-war music from the 1960’s, around 300 Japanese protesters commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the first sit-in against U.S. military installations on Okinawa on Saturday.

Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine will lead a delegation of Okinawa residents and politicians to Washington on Thursday, as tensions rise between the mayor and the central government over the plan to build a U.S. military replacement base in the city’s Henoko district.

Opponents of construction on a new runway as part of a plan to relocate the Marines’ Futenma air base told a Japanese court Wednesday the project would irrevocably damage the Okinawa coastal environment.

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese anti-war protesters will converge on U.S. and Japanese military installations this weekend to mark the 42nd anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion from American control back to Japan.

Organizers expect upwards of 3,000 protesters from across Japan to attend the annual three-day protest march, which began Friday morning at Henoko, site of a controversial runway expansion to support air operations that are scheduled to move from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Camp Schwab.

Camp Hansen and Torii Station were on the march route Friday, followed by Camp Courtney, Kadena Air Base and Camp Foster on Saturday. The rally will culminate with protesters encircling Futenma on Sunday and holding a rally at Ginowan Beachside Park.

The rally, dubbed Peace Action 2014, is being held to protest the runway project, according to organizer Satoru Oshiro of the Okinawa Peace Activity Center. Drilling surveys are expected to start next month with actual construction planned for later this year.

“Besides a new Self-Defense Force base being built in Yonaguni, military bases — both U.S. military and the Self-Defense forces — are being fortified, changing Japan to a country that can wage war,” Oshiro said. “We must stop this current at all costs.”

Oshiro’s comments came Wednesday, a day before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a nationally televised plea to revisit Japan’s pacifist constitution so the country could defend its allies in combat.

Oshiro criticized the Tokyo government for ignoring the voices of Okinawans.

“The Marine Corps understands that the local police departments and other government of Japan officials have taken necessary measures to provide access to Marine Corps facilities and areas in Okinawa,” Marine officials said in a statement to Stars and Stripes. “We look forward to their continued cooperation and support to ensure public safety.”

The protest march will also be stopping at Japanese Self-Defense bases, Okinawa City Hall and sites from Japan’s imperial past, like Peace Prayer Park in Itoman and the Imperial Army’s underground headquarters site in Haebaru.